Do you charge family and friends?

[Anthony1971]

Took Many family members over the years when we would get a 2BR and no we would not charge them a few times we even paid for family membors tickets and food who were young (late teens early twenties). If a family member wants their own room we will charge our Dues.

 

[meethinx]

I have not charged any family member yet, especially when traveling together. I am looking into possibly renting to friends though at a much discounted rate since I seem to be left over with more points than I usually have after two years of not being able to travel anywhere.

 

[Marypoppins14]

last summer, as my parents were driving me to emergency eye surgery, my mother says to my father, “Gee, I guess that she has to cancel her week long DVC trip, and give it to us!”
I’m like, “REALLY, Mom - I’m right here! And, your timing is terrible! Show some compassion!”
My mom “apologizes” (with pixie dusted eyes). Travel mercenaries, my parents. Good grief.

 

[LaurenT]

I booked a room for my sister and her boyfriend and will be their “tour guide” … if she offers me something for the room I will
accept it because she has a lot more money than me and I am the sole provider for my college age daughter and disabled husband …
So far she hasn’t offered to pay me anything, but she also hasn’t asked me to pay her back for the ticket she bought me - so that’ll be nice if I don’t have to pay for that.

 

[Maistre Gracey]

Never have. And, never would have. (Past tense since I’m no longer a member.)

Either do it right, or stay home.

 

[EilonwyWanderer]

Never charged. We bought in (with not many points) to do the whole bank, borrow, go every other year and get a 2 bedroom so we could bring another family with us or some people from our family, etc. COVID kind of screwed that up a bit, but I expect when my kids are a little older and have besties we'll be offering the chance for their best friends to come down with us.

 

[cedricandsophie]

Never even considered it. When I invite someone it’s an invitation not a transaction.

 

[iheartglaciers]

I do charge my friends $15/point if I'm booking them an additional room (e.g., we're not sharing). I'm single and it's hard for me to absorb the cost of their room. If they weren't using the points, I rent any extra I have (at a higher price). But they are more than happy to get a room in a prime location at a large discount.

 

[ILoveMyDVC]

Hey, when you bring family and or friends on your DVC, do you charge them for their room? Or do you just ‘pay’ for the hotel? Do you charge them the cost of your dues only? Going rate for rentals? Dues + amortized buy in cost? Or do you just not bring anyone else on your points?

I’m just a bit curious how others handle it.

Never. They are my invited guests.

 

[gharter]

We have done it with extended family, our kids, our son and his wife. If we invite them, then we cover the room charge. Transportation, tickets are on them. When TIW was available, we paid for all the meals and then settled up later.

 

[GoingSince1990]

To me, charging a friend or family member for a stay using your DVC points is similar to charging them for staying at a vacation home that you owned.

 

[Cabius]

The response here is so one-sided I wonder if we really have a representative response, or if folks who do charge their guests are just embarrassed to pipe up!

If it helps, I don't think there's anything wrong with having friends and family pay for their room, any more than I would object to a group of friends traveling together splitting the cost of an AirBNB.

It's not my family's situation, because we are more financially blessed than most of our friends and family, so DVC is in part a way to bring them along with us. But that's not everybody's situation!

 

[LSchrow]

If they stay in our room, I don't charge them (we are usually just 2 people in a 1-bdrm, so an extra person isn't a big deal).
We book a Studio for our son & his fiancé 8 nights, twice a year - no charge.
The only time I charge is when my brother & his family go - they will only stay in a 2 bdrm with 3-4 people, so I charge them the dues on the points they are using.

 

[npatellye]

We don’t charge if we invite people to come along. Part of why we bought was so we could take the occasional family trip. If someone asked us to book them a room and we didn’t invite them, then we would probably charge them the cost of dues and call it a day. But we also don’t have so many points that we can book our trips and still have lots of leftover points (we only have 350, which is just about right for our needs plus a little cushion).

 

[theww228]

If I invite someone then I do not charge anything or expect anything. If someone asks to go then I charge depending on the situation. Someone that needs some magic, then no charge or a nominal amount so they feel like they didn’t freeload. “There is a $15 a day cost for me, if you can cover that then I am good.” They stay for a week for $100, but they feel like they paid their own way and they don’t owe me something.

If it someone that I am not really that close with and we are not traveling together then I charge MF plus some for buy in costs, $11-12 per point. If I don’t care for them and we are traveling together it is $50 per point.

 

[Chuck96]

I charge everyone. Friends, family, even my spouse. I even charge them a booking fee so they don’t get ideas.

There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

To be honest, most of them wouldn't be able to afford the trip (or at least wouldn't choose to spend their money on the trip) if they had to pay much for the hotel. They would NEVER let me pay cash for them to stay at a hotel at $600/night (nor could I really afford it either). They would never spend that on themselves or their kids for a room like AKL.

I bought DVC so I could share the magic of Disney with others - like friends and family kids. So I usually do not fully explain DVC and simply tell them "the rooms are free" - it's the only way they would agree to it.

Even then, they still feel guilty and want to pay something, so I generally suggest they buy us dinner or something instead.

 

[sheilafri]

To me, charging a friend or family member for a stay using your DVC points is similar to charging them for staying at a vacation home that you owned.

I have a vacation home but no DVC. If I invite family or friends I wouldn’t dream of charging. I don’t charge family for staying. I pay for cleaning the first time they stay, after that I do ask them to pay the cleaning charge. For friends, if they ask to stay on their own, I will most likely charge a very discounted rate and charge for cleaning.

 

[mistysue]

The response here is so one-sided I wonder if we really have a representative response, or if folks who do charge their guests are just embarrassed to pipe up!

If it helps, I don't think there's anything wrong with having friends and family pay for their room, any more than I would object to a group of friends traveling together splitting the cost of an AirBNB.

It's not my family's situation, because we are more financially blessed than most of our friends and family, so DVC is in part a way to bring them along with us. But that's not everybody's situation!

The answers to a question like this are mainly going to vary by how many points one uses for their trips vs how many points they own. Unlike the vacation home analogy, DVC is limited quantity- if your guest uses the points you are now "out" and don't get to use them. Rarely is one who has a family trip planned going to buy a room to give a free room to her neighbor... so there's nothing greedy about charginga replacement rate, especially for someone who uses their points.

I suspect the answers are skewed by people afraid to say- now that others are making public statements about how generous they are. I am generally far more giving than most people; I learned this from my years watching the finances of parent teacher groups and working with charities. But I don't randomly book friends and family free hotels rooms when they want a vacation, which is exactly what getting someone a DVC room is. People can do that if they would like, but even common sense tells us that is not as common as this discussion would leave one to believe. I've seen far more posts discussing charging family and friends in the low $20's/point than I have discussing giving away free rooms.

 

[Robbie Cottam]

If I may be so bold as to ask...... Are you bringing an extra person with you on a trip that is already booked?

Or are you booking a trip for someone that you are not going on and they want the to be free....

I would personal just get someone to buy a dinner or something if they were a tag along ..... but if they asked me to book a trip for them....... that cost money.....